Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber win big at MTV EMAs

MILAN (AP) – Pop singer Justin Bieber dominated the MTV EMAs with five European music awards Sunday night, including for best male performer, best collaboration and best look. ‘’It’s been a long couple of years.

MTV staged its 22nd annual Europe Music Awards in Milan, Italy Sunday night, and while Kanye West didn’t take the stage to declare his candidacy for president like he did at the network’s flagship awards show in August, the Ed Sheeran-hosted event gathered a variety of high-profile performers and doled out plenty of shiny hardware. Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” — the Kendrick Lamar-featuring song that took home Video of the Year at the VMAs — won Best Song at the EMAs, beating out tracks by Ellie Goulding, Major Lazer, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth. Clad in a boyish red ensemble, Bieber performed his single “What Do You Mean?” for screaming fans – many of whom surely helped him win the best fans category – inside the Mediolanum Center in Italy’s fashion capital of Milan. But Swift couldn’t snag Best Video, which went to “Downtown” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who topped Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, Sia, and Swift. As he picked up his award for best collaboration, Bieber said “it’s been a pretty good night.” By the time he took the fifth award, for best look, he just said ‘’Wow.” Host Ed Sheeran had a busy night, keeping the show going with co-host Ruby Rose, performing with Rudimental on their hit “Lay It On Me,” and taking home two awards himself, for best live act and best world stage.

As the broadcast wrapped up, cameras cut to the Piazza Duomo in Milan’s center, where fans unfurled a huge ‘’Freedom” banner to raise awareness about Europe’s refugee crisis. “Music lovers around the world, when we started, there was us and MTV, and we blazed a trail and we were there for each other,” Simon Le Bon told the crowd. Andrea Bocelli made his MTV EMA debut, lulling the Italian crowd into a sing-along of his hit “Con te partiro” before singing a duet with best newcomer nominee Tori Kelly. “It’s been such an honor just to be around him and just see how he works and it’s really cool to see his wife and kids,” Kelly said on the red carpet, calling it “a huge honor” to share the stage with Bocelli.